Washington Huskies: It’s Jimmy Lake’s team now, history of first time head coaches at UW
This season, whether the Washington Huskies play this fall or wait until next spring, Jimmy Lake is heading into his first season as head coach. We will look at other assistant coaches who were promoted within the program worked out their first season at the helm.
The Chris Peterson era of Washington football is over. His former defensive coordinator Jimmy Lake is now the man in charge. Since Don James, the Dawgfather, who was head coach from 1975 thru 1992, the Washington Huskies have only had two assistant coaches promoted to head coach in Jim Lambright and Keith Gilbertson.
We went back over the last 100 years of Huskies football. Jimmy Lake will be the seventh head coach since Don James hung up his clipboard and the third head coach promoted from within the program. In fact, of the seven head coaches, Jimmy Lake is the second defensive coordinator to take the job, the other was Jim Lambright. Going back over the last 100 years, four other men made their head coaching debut at the University of Washington.
The modern era
Jim Lambright (1993-1998)
Former Huskies’ all-conference defensive end, Jim Lambright, became an assistant coach at the University of Washington in 1969, during the Jim Owens era. He stayed an assistant for 24 years, working his way up to defensive coordinator in 1978. Lambright was named head coach when Don James resigned after the NCAA imposed sanctions on Washington. Penalties included bowl game ineligibility for two seasons.
Lambright was Washington’s head coach for six seasons from 1993–1998. The Huskies had a 7–4 record for each of his first three seasons. In 1995, the bowl ban ended. The Huskies lost in their return to postseason action, 38-18 to Iowa in the Sun Bowl. After a 6-6 record in 1998, Lambright was dismissed. Athletic director Barbara Hedges fired him because UW lost three of the four bowl games he coached in, and the Huskies never went to the Rose Bowl.